One Salt Sea: An October Daye Novel

“I’m glad he’ll stand with you,” said Luna, pulling our attention to her. “I doubt Connor would. He didn’t stand with Rayseline.”


“I’m not sure that’s fair,” I said carefully. Luna hadn’t commented on my relationship with Connor before that moment??something I’d been deeply grateful for, since I wasn’t planning to break up with him, no matter what she said. “She made her choices. He’s made his.”

“Her choices were made for her.” Luna lifted one bone-white hand, looking at it thoughtfully. “Blood decides so much for us. All of us.”

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, not sure what to say, although I was pretty sure pointing out that Connor didn’t choose Raysel in the first place wouldn’t go over well. Luna was right; in Faerie, blood will tell. I was starting to wonder how much of her calm had actually belonged to Hoshibara, the Kitsune girl whose skin Luna used to escape her father’s lands.

“Rayseline was wed for diplomatic reasons,” said Sylvester sharply. “The choice to end the marriage was hers, and was made when she left her duties. Toby, please. What was so important that you had to come here to tell us?”

I took a deep breath, holding it for a moment before I breathed out, and said, “I called a Glastig I know from Home and asked him about the kidnappings. He didn’t really reach beyond his roots after leaving Devin. He generally knows what’s going on in the underworld.”

“And?” asked Sylvester.

Here it was: the moment of truth. “He said the only person who was asking the right kind of questions was a red-haired girl with yellow eyes and a laugh like . . .” I couldn’t finish that sentence. “He described Rayseline.”

Silence crashed down around us. Luna’s hand tightened on Sylvester’s. For his part, he simply closed his eyes, breathing slowly in and out. Finally:

“I see. I suppose, again, that blood will tell.” Sylvester opened his eyes. “What will you do?”

There were so many questions packed into that short, seemingly-simple sentence. What would I do? Would I hand Rayseline over to the justice of the Undersea? To the Queen’s justice? To anyone at all? She and I were close, once, before she was stolen and raised in darkness. It wasn’t her fault that she grew up broken—and sadly, the fact that it wasn’t her fault wasn’t enough to un-break her.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m going to prevent this war. I don’t know what that’s going to mean, but I’m going to prevent this war. I need to search her rooms. I need to know if there’s anything here that might help me figure out what’s really going on.”

Sylvester nodded. Luna wasn’t saying anything. Her eyes were closed, pink lashes unnaturally bright against the stark whiteness of her skin.

“I . . . appreciate that you did not call us with this news. This is too important for that.” Sylvester sighed. “You have free run of her apartments. Etienne will accompany you and provide anything else you need.”

“He isn’t needed in the armory?”

“This is more important,” said Sylvester. “You’ll be sure we know the situation?”

“I will,” I said, with all the sincerity of a promise.

“Good.”

That was my dismissal; it couldn’t have been any clearer. I turned, walking back across the throne room to the doors. They didn’t call me back, and I didn’t turn around. Then the doors swung open, and I left my liege and his lady behind.





ELEVEN


TYBALT WAS LEANING against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the pages walk by with their armfuls of weaponry. I stopped in my tracks, struggling with the image of Tybalt looking so at home in Shadowed Hills. He’d always been a part of my life, a figure lurking on the fringes making snide comments and yet somehow, reliably, coming to my rescue when I needed him.

How long had it taken me to notice that?

He straightened when he saw me. “I take it you’ve finished?” he asked. There was open concern in his tone.

“Yeah. I told them.”